As a fella who digs functional art, the last thing I would have ever thought a robot NEEDED was a hat and a cane. It was my sister’s idea. I’ve made a few mechanical insects (and a hermit crab) ready for display in the Steampunk museum’s entomology collection. I’ve done some bug collecting of my own and spent a lot of time posing each insect based on a set of specific predetermined positions to best display the creature features for study or reference. My point is that entomology collections rarely take into account the personality of the insect. Even though I didn’t feel entirely “good” about putting a hat and a cane on a robot, I was flattered that my sister had been inspired by my mechanical ant. My sister does have good ideas, so it’s really the perfect opportunity for me to get over my inhibitions to put hats on robots.

The most exciting part of making this piece (and the other robo-bugs), were the additional ideas that would come to mind as I was creating them. I kept telling myself, “keep doing what you’re doing, we’ll try that on the next one”. It feels real good to finish up a piece and be immediately ready to start the next one. It sure does, and I am.